Does it pay to smoke? / by an old smoker.

James Parton

Date:: [1872?]

Credit: Does it pay to smoke? / by an old smoker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

11/60 page 9

$and sympathetic consideration of his case, I am compelled reluctantly to conclude that it does not. The very fact that it tends to make him contented with his lot is a point against his pipe. It is a shame to linn to be contented. To a young man the carrying of the hod is no dishonour, for it is ^fit that young men should bear burdens and perform lowly tasks. But the hod is not for gray hairs, II henever, in this free and spacious America, we * see a man past fifty carrying heavy loads upon his shoulders, or performing any hired labour that requires little skill or thought, we know there must have been some great defect or waste in that man’s life. The first dollar that George Law ever earned, after leaving his father’s house, was earned by carrying the hod at Albany. But with that dollar he bought an arithmetic and spelling-book; which, \\ hen winter closed in and put a stop to hod-carry¬ ing, he mastered, and thus began to prepare to build the “ High Bridge ” over the Harlem River, where he made a million dollars by using steam hod- carriers instead of Irish ones. The pipe is one of the points of difference between the hod-carrier content with his lot and the hod-carrier who means to get into bricklaying next spring. Yonder is one of the latter class reading his “ Sun ” after dinner,$

Does it pay to smoke? / by an old smoker.

Licence and re-use

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